The ongoing South Africa series has been a bit of a sham for India as they lost the first Test, there has been a blame game going on from the coaches to the players and the pitch, and then they ended up losing the skipper, Shubman Gill, for the decider. Gill had a neck spasm on the second day of the Kolkata Test and despite recovering a bit, the Indian captain still isn't fully fit to take the field and hence, Rishabh Pant will be leading the side, his deputy for a long time.
India, will now certainly be under a bit of pressure. Being one down in the series, now they don't have their main batter and captain, but heroes rise when the chips are down and it will be a golden opportunity for Pant and Co to stand up to the challenge against the Test champions. Now, with Gill out, India need a right-handed batter in the middle order and probably one more, to counter the Simon Harmer threat. However, with India not opting for a replacement, the two backup batters are left-handers.
Since Sai Sudharsan was left out of the side, he is most likely to come back and probably take his spot at No 3 back, while Dhruv Jurel will most likely bat at No 4 in place of Gill. Now for the extra spot, India are likely set to bring back Nitish Kumar Reddy for Axar Patel. Patel did nothing wrong but to balance the right-handers in the side, Reddy will return and hence, the left-arm spinner, unfortunately, will have to miss out.
The rest of the side is expected to be on similar lines as the first Test, with Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav being the three spinners in the bowling attack, led by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj in the pace department.
India's predicted XI for 2nd Test against South Africa: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Sai Sudharsan
